Things to watch this week in the Atlantic Coast Conference:
Game of the week
No. 15 Louisville (3-0, 1-0 ACC) at No. 16 Notre Dame (3-1), Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET (Peacock)
It’s the lone ranked vs. ranked matchup involving an ACC team and is the Cardinals’ first game on the road after winning all three home games. The contest could go a long way to showing if Louisville is a legitimate contender for the College Football Playoff.
Louisville surprised Notre Dame a season ago, taking control early and never getting pushed on the way to a 33-20 victory.
The Cardinals are off to a hot start in large part due to Tyler Shough, a Texas Tech transfer, taking over at quarterback. He’s completed 68% of his throws for 850 yards and eight touchdowns against zero interceptions. Louisville receiver Chris Bell leads the ACC with 27.3 yards per reception. He’s got two TD catches of 30 or more yards this season.
Notre Dame bounced back from its home loss to Northern Illinois with a 66-7 win over Purdue last week.
The undercard
Stanford (2-1, 1-1) at No. 17 Clemson (2-1, 1-0). It is the second straight cross-country trip for first-year league member Stanford after it became just the third ever ACC team to win its first conference game on the road at Syracuse. Clemson’s offense has been on fire the past two games, putting up 125 points in victories over Appalachian State and N.C. State.
Impact players
Cade Klubnik, Clemson. Klubnik is in his second season as a starter for the Tigers and has looked like a more decisive, effective player this season. Klubnik struggled with mistakes and poor decisions as the defending ACC champions fell out of contention early last season. After struggling against Georgia in the opener, Klubnik has accounted for 11 touchdowns — eight passing, three rushing — in victories over Appalachian State (66-20) and N.C. State (59-35).
Inside the numbers
Louisville wide receiver Chris Bell leads the ACC at 27.3 yards a reception this season. He’s got two TD catches of 30 yards or more for the 3-0 Cardinals. … Virginia Tech defensive lineman Antwuan Powell-Ryland leads the Bowl Subdivision with six sacks. … N.C. State leads the nation in consecutive extra points. It has not missed the kick after a touchdown since the last game of the 2017 regular season, a run of 262 straight games. … Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord is the third Orange passer to throw for 300 or more yards in three straight games. He joins Ryan Nassib in 2012 and Eric Dungey in 2017. … Florida State has had 22 tackles for loss, 10 sacks and two interceptions in its past two games against Memphis and Cal.
Tar Heel chaos?
Losses can hit hard and it remains to be seen how long North Carolina’s eye-opening 70-50 home loss to James Madison last week could affect the program.
Tar Heels coach Mack Brown said he was “disappointed in me,” for how he handled things and said players who thought he was going to step down had “misinterpreted” his comments after the game.
In all, not the vibe the Tar Heels wanted to bring into their season-opening ACC game Saturday rival Duke on Saturday.
It was an awful showing by North Carolina, which gave up 53 points in the first half. Brown explained how he talked to his players about leadership.
“That’s something I shouldn’t do. I shouldn’t put that pressure on those young people at that point. I’m supposed to be a leader,” Brown said this week. “So (I’m) disappointed in me.”
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